“I don’t care how many coaches I have, how many times I have to go through this again and again. I’m going to keep going.”
September 2022, Brockport, N.Y. — Laken Sooy
By Graciella Dressler
“The main reason why I go to Brockport is for gymnastics. I’ve done it all my life. My mom took me like Mommy and Me classes when I was a toddler and I loved it. I’ve just kind of been doing it all my life.”
“I also did softball. Because my mom did softball, all through high school, and my dad did baseball. And I really love softball, too, like I had a great time with that. But it got to a point where I had to basically choose between gymnastics or softball because both were just becoming such a time commitment. I ended up choosing gymnastics and I’m definitely happy that I chose that.”
“I’ve kind of always loved it. But there were times when it was harder than other things. I’ve had coaches who were not great people and a lot of coaches like I just had a lot of coaches throughout my career that kept leaving like another one would come, stay for two months, and then leave, which made it kind of hard sometimes to stay focused and motivated with every couple of months. You’re like, a brand new coach, don’t know what to expect. Um, but I decided that I just wanted to stick with it no matter what, like I love the sport and, like since I was like, six that I wanted to do college gymnastics. And I’m like, I’m gonna do it. I don’t care what all the other, like, I don’t care how many coaches I have, how many times I have to go through this again and again. I’m going to keep going until I get to college gymnastics..”
“So when I was looking for colleges, I really wanted to come to college where I could continue gymnastics because it had just become such a big part of my life at that point because I had been training like 20 hours a week for like 10 years. At that point. So I went on a couple of visits at a couple of different places. I went and actually visited Brockport because well for gymnastics, and I decided that I wanted to come here because it just kind of when I got on campus, it just kind of felt like home”
“When I committed to Brockport, I actually thought I was going to have a different coach, and then three days after I committed, he announced his retirement. And I actually found out afterward that he had told the other girls who are already on the team that he wasn’t going to be the coach anymore, but he didn’t tell me that until after I committed. So kind of going into that we didn’t know who the new coach was gonna be. And I was kind of like, yeah, this is what’s been happening all my life like this is crazy.”
“But then once we got Renee, you kind of got to know her and I mean everyone loves her. I think she’s great. She’s doing a great job with the program. And I’m actually really happy that at first, I was kind of unsure how that would go with having new coaches, having a new coach my freshman year but I’m really excited that we kind of started our college careers with her and she’s going to be there for the next four years.”
“It’s probably one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Because this team is just so special. It's so special to be a part of something like this. I’m around them all the time and I just love hanging out with them and I also get to compete with them too.”
“Competing with all of your best friends just makes it so exciting. It’s exciting to be cheering each other on when everyone is focused just on that one person on that one event.”
